Posted on 09/26/2002 11:21:59 PM PDT by HAL9000
Vilnai: Reports suggest Def moderately injured, not killed
Cabinet minister Matan Vilnai said Friday that, according to intelligence information he had received, the IDF's attempted assassination Thursday of Hamas military leader Mohammed Def failed to kill the man considered Israel's most-wanted terrorist, and only injured him. Def's deputy and bodyguard were killed in the Apache missile attack on Thursday afternoon on his car in Gaza City.
Earlier Thursday, military sources had said that they were "99 percent certain" that Def had been killed along with his bodyguard and deputy, but later could not rule out the Palestinians version.
Vilnai told Army Radio that, "the reports I received from our people were that (Def) was indeed injured but did not suffer a life-threatening injury."
Late Thursday, IDF sources said that they still did not have clear-cut evidence on the condition of Def, who tops the IDF's wanted list and is believed to be responsible for the deaths of dozens of Israelis. "At the moment there is no certainty that he has been killed. We need to wait another day or two," said one source, adding that Hamas was doing all it could to hide the truth about Def's fate.
At least two people were killed when the missiles, fired by attack helicopters, slammed into a Mercedes in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood. Over 40 bystanders were injured in the attack, including 15 youngsters. Six people were listed in critical condition, doctors said.
Abu Dhabi TV showed footage of a man it said was pulled from the car, who was clearly shaken and wounded, but his face was not to the camera and it was impossible to identify him.
Hamas sources identified the two dead men as movement members, Abdel Rahim Hamdan, 27, and Issa Abu Ajra, 29.
Government spokesman, Dan Seaman, confirmed that the Def was the target of the strike, but said he did not know whether Def was killed. Def has managed to elude capture and assassination by Israel on several occasions, including one instance earlier this year when he jumped out of his car only seconds before it was devastated by missiles fired by a helicopter.
"The targeted car was a Hamas car and there were two martyrs," said senior Hamas official Abdel Aziz Rantisi, shortly after Thursday's attack. "Hamas will escalate martyrdom operations inside Tel Aviv and Jaffa and Haifa and everywhere."
"We are determined to wipe out Zionist terrorism. They are targeting civilians. They are targeting children. There are at least 15 children among the wounded here," said Rantissi.
The rocket attack, at around 2 P.M., demolished one car and damaged a second. Mustafa Hajar, a hairdresser working nearby, said there was a traffic jam in the area due to road construction. "Suddenly we heard the sound of a big explosion," Hajar said. "When I ran out, a second explosion took place."
Hundreds of angry Palestinians flocked to the scene, pulled body parts from the charred wreckage of the cars and bore them aloft, shouting defiantly.
Def is considered the Hamas movement's master bombmaker. His mentor was Yehiye Ayash, known as "The Engineer," who was responsible for a wave of suicide attacks before he was killed by Israel in the Strip in January 1996. Def inherited his mantle and two months later and Israel believes he was the one who unleashed a devastating series of suicide attacks in which over 50 Israelis were killed in the space of just 10 days.
After Israel killed the Hamas military chief in the Gaza Strip, Salah Shehadeh, two months ago, Def took over his position.
IDF sources said Thursday night that if Def was indeed killed, there will be Palestinian attempts to avenge his assassination. Hamas leaders have already said they plan to avenge the deaths of the two Def aides.
In either case, the army said it was possible that Hamas would try using its primitive Kassam rockets to fire on the western Negev, as it has done several times in the past few weeks, most recently overnight Wednesday, when a rocket hit a factory in the Sderot industrial zone, not harming anyone as it shattered a hole in the roof.
30 IDF tanks enter northern Gaza Strip
Earlier Thursday, a large IDF force entered Beit Lahiya in the northern part of the Strip. Apparently the force was chasing a terror cell in the area.
Palestinians reported that 30 IDF tanks and two armored bulldozers had entered Beit Hanoun, another Palestinian-ruled area in northern Gaza.
Indictment: Def planned to attack PM's car
By Amos Harel, Ha'aretz Correspondent
Mohammed Def, the Hamas terrorist who was the target of Thursday's IDF helicopter attack in Gaza, planned a terrorist attack on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's car in the Negev, according to a charge sheet presented in the Erez Checkpoint Military Court recently.
In addition to the attempt on Sharon, says the charge sheet against Ashraf Abu Maratsib, 24, from Dir al Balah, Def also had planned to use a European Muslim as a suicide bomber.
Maratsib, a Hamas man for the last two years, was trained as a bomb-maker by Def, says the indictment. The course lasted five days and afterward Def ordered Maratsib to infiltrate into Israel and put his new-found knowledge to use. According to the charge sheet, Maratsib used a ladder to get over the security fence and made it to the Lod-Ramle area, where he lived for three months before the Shin Bet arrested him.
The charge sheet, apparently based on a confession, claims that Maratsib met with three Def assistants on the last day of the bomb-making course, when they told him how he would be used by the Hamas military wing.
He would prepare the bombs inside Israel and give them to suicide bombers who would infiltrate from the West Bank. He was told to expect a European who would pick up a bomb. "Don't worry, he's Muslim," they told him.
He was also instructed to gather intelligence on Sharon's travel routines. The plan was to plant a land-mine somewhere on the route to Sharon's ranch, near Sderot. He was told to find appropriate places for suicide bombings in the south, specifically Ashdod and Ashkelon.
The charge sheet does not specify if indeed he did make bombs while in the Lod-Ramle area, but it does cite his involvement in the bombing of the security fence near Kfar Darom in May 2001, in which two foreign workers from Romania were killed.
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